Triptych, An Erotic Adventure: 3 Stories in 1

Krissy Kneen

In this suite of three linked erotic stories, Krissy Kneen takes a frank delight in the project of arousal. Transgressive, sardonic, lyrical, and irresistibly sexy, she addresses taboos of all kinds with warmth and subtle wit.

Pursuing sexual adventure online, Susanna finds a soul mate among the anonymous onanists. But is it possible the mystery man lives in her own building?

Leda’s first love brings tenderness, heartbreak and a powerful sexual awakening at the behest of Paul and Rachel—two very different best friends.

Some couples find as time passes they start to become like brother and sister. For Aaron and Katherine, it’s more complicated.

Krissy Kneen is the award-winning author of memoir—Affection—and fiction: An Uncertain Grace, Steeplechase, Triptych, The Adventures of Holly White and the Incredible Sex Machine, as well as the Thomas Shapcott Award-winning poetrycollection Eating My Grandmother. She has written and directed broadcast documentaries for SBS and ABC Television.

‘Make no mistake: Triptych is pornography (or, if you prefer, erotica) but it’s the type Angela Carter must have had in mind when she wrote about the “moral pornographer”, someone who fosters acceptance for “a world of absolute sexual licence for all genders, and projects a model of the way such a world might work”. Triptych does this not by being didactic or presenting stereotypically “empowering” scenarios, but by showing people joyfully, shamelessly doing things usually labelled as sordid and shameful. Whether reading it helps you get off or just increases your understanding of how others might, a happy ending is guaranteed.‘

Weekend Australian

‘As everyone who has ever tried to do it knows, writing well about sex is difficult to the point of impossibility. But Krissy Kneen, as readers of her first book, Affection, will be aware, is one of the few writers around who seems to be able to manage it … I have great admiration for this book and frankly enjoyed reading it but it’s definitely not for the squeamish.’

Bendigo Advertiser

‘…Kneen gets away with it all. Her writing is leisured and quite seductive. And there certainly aren’t too many other writers out there who could pull off a book of this nature.’

Saturday Age

‘With nods to Anais Nin and Vladimir Nabokov, Kneen writes with tenderness,
joy and delight. Each character is genuinely curious about the possibilities of
sexual pleasure. Their sexual lives are woven with humility, desire and
transgression… Someone once said the difference between pornography and art is
that pornography makes you stop and have sex, while art makes you keep
reading. The jury is out with Triptych: it’s delightful, courageous and juicy but be
warned, it might take you a while to finish.’

Big Issue

‘If you plan to read only one book in which a woman has sex with a dog, pony and octopus, make it Triptych. Kneen’s interconnected erotic stories happily transgress every sexual taboo, but Triptych doesn’t just intend to shock. It’s also unexpectedly tender, funny, disturbingly relatable and very, very readable.’

Benjamin Law

‘this is an astounding look at different sorts of love, and Kneen is above all, a
sensualist.’

Adelaide Advertiser

‘[Susanna is] an innovative approach to an erotic story, made all the more powerful because it makes the reader focus on the content of communication rather than way communication is expressed.’